Signal Disorientation Effect: The Conflict Between Consumers' Self-Choices And The Actual Results In Power Impression Management

Products are the extended self.People can manage their social image in the eyes of others through consumption.As one of the scarce social resources,power is always pursued by individuals.Products can function as a power signal,such that consumers may use their products to manage their impressions(i.e.,appearing to be powerful through consumption).To achieve this goal,conspicuous products that carry significant status declaring property seem to be excellent tools.To date,conspicuous products have been classified into two types,which are explicit signals and subtle signals,respectively.This leads to a series of research questions.If a consumer would like to make him/herself look powerful,which kind of signal type of conspicuous products will be chosen? Furthermore,how is the effect of their choice,what is the underlying reason for this choice,and does this effect hold all the time?In the current literature,these are all open questions that have not been answered.For this reason,this paper systematically discusses how consumers choose conspicuous products' signal in the process of power impression management.Meanwhile,in order to judge whether their choice is correct,we will also measure consumers' perceived power for the two types of signals who act as observers.In addition,by examining mediation and moderation,the current paper will also reveal how consumers make their judgments and the boundary conditions for the effect.By adopting construal level theory,using survey,field observation,laboratory experiment,and causal-chain methods,with the statistical analyses including factor analysis,structural equation model,correlational analysis,regression analysis,variance analysis,the author conducted as many as 10 empirical studies.The main finds are as follows.First,the author developed a scale that measures subtle signals of inconspicuous consumption(Study 1a),which was further used in a survey study(Study 1b).In this study,the author found that sense of power was significantly and positively correlated with subtle signals of inconspicuous consumption.This relationship still held even after many covariates were controlled for.In a following(Study 1c)field observation study,with a company's annual meeting as the research setting,the author replicated the aforementioned effect,such that the results again indicated that subtle signal had a stronger correlation with high rather than low power.To provide evidence for causality inference,and to test how consumers made their choice in power impression management,the author then conducted several lab experiments.Study 2a and Study 2b showed that when a consumer managed their own power impression,he(she)regarded explicit signals of conspicuous products to be more effective than subtle signals of inconspicuous products.However,when a consumer evaluated others' tools for power impression management as an observer,he(she)would take subtle signals of inconspicuous products to be more effective than explicit signals of conspicuous products.Taken together,consumers failed to select the right signal in power impression management.This phenomenon was termed as signal disorientation effect.This effect is robust,because no matter the author used logo size or brand popularity as stimuli,the results were consistent across different experiments.Second,in Study 3a and 3b,the author tested the mediation through two different approaches.In two experiments,the author measured and directly manipulated the mediator: perceived distinction from the mainstream,respectively.In line with our prediction,when perceived distinction from the mainstream was measured(Study 3a),the indirect effect of the interaction between independent variables(i.e.,types of signals and perspective)on the dependent variable(power impression)through perceived distinction from the mainstream was statistically significant.In addition,if the manipulation of perceived distinction from the mainstream was absent,the results replicated previous signal disorientation effect.However,when both two types of signals were manipulated to be obviously distinctive from the mainstream,consumers attributed similar impression towards people who used products carrying different signals.In this condition,the signal disorientation effect disappeared(Study 3b).These results not only contained statistical mediation(Study 3a),but also included more direct evidence for the causal chain(Study 3b).Therefore,the author provided strong support for the mediating role of perception perceived distinction from the mainstream.Finally,the author tested three potential moderators,which were power(Study 4a),power impression manager(Study 4b),and perspective taking(Study 4c).The directions for these variables to moderate the basic signal disorientation effect were different.Among them,power exacerbated this effect,whereas power impression manager and perspective taking reduced certain effect.Specifically,Study 4a found that although low power consumers were in the most need for effective power impression management,they were more in favor of the wrong option,and thus were further trapped in the signal choice mistake.Study 4b showed that despite the fact that consumers cannot manage their own power impression properly,they could make the correct choice for others.Through the shift of view,consumers can successfully get out of the trap.Following this logic,Study 4c provided a simpler and more direct shortcut for consumers to get rid of signal disorientation,which is raising the awareness of perspective taking.If a consumer can fully take the perspective of others,he(she)would be able to choose the right products for their own power impression management.In this case,signal disorientation effect ceased to exist.Theoretically speaking,the present research first contributes to the literature on power.To the best of our knowledge,this is the first research that investigates how consumers use products to improve their power image.Most extant papers focus on the consequences of power,this research is in line with the latest trend to examine the antecedents of power.Second,in terms of impression management,this dissertation tests a kind of impression management with a specific goal towards power,which,therefore,offers new insights into the typology of impression management.Third,this study also explores the consequences of using conspicuous products by disclosing how different types of conspicuous products influence people's power.Fourth,previous research regarding to judgments and decision making mainly discusses general psychological decisions.The author has found new self-other discrepancies of decision making in the context of consumption.Finally,most of the existing research on compensatory consumption explores the mechanism of psychological compensation,whereas this study examines the results of psychological compensation.With regard to practice,findings in this research are instructive to consumers,companies as well as public policy makers.The author also acknowledges that this research has some limitations pertaining to design,methods and so forth,which also point to potential research direction in the future.